Are Scones & Tea Biscuits Healthy?

Fresh or dried fruit can boost a scone's healthfulness.

When they're viewed in the middle of a stack of sweet, sticky or creamy treats at your local bakery or coffee shop, simple and austere scones and tea biscuits appear to be the relatively healthful, adult-friendly option. The truth is more nuanced. Standard-issue scones and biscuits mostly contain fat, sugar and white flour, none of them high on anyone's list of health foods. Still, some are more healthful than others, and you can make your own homemade scones as healthful as you wish.

Typical Ingredients in Scones and Biscuits

Scones and biscuits are close kin, sharing the same basic ingredients and methodology. A basic small-batch recipe typically calls for 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of fat, with milk or cream as its liquid and a greater or lesser amount of sugar. That quantity of ingredients makes a dozen small biscuits, or the dough can be patted into a round and cut into eight traditionally wedge-shaped scones. That's approximately a tablespoon of fat -- butter, margarine, shortening or lard -- per portion, not an excessive quantity but an appreciable percentage of your day's intake. Scones from your neighborhood bakery are similar to homemade, while large-scale commercial bakeries typically use a few extra additives, preservatives and emulsifiers.

Fixing the Flour

Flour is one of the major ingredients in biscuits and scones, and it's a logical place to start when you're interested in making yours healthier. Substituting whole-wheat flour for all or part of the white is an obvious starting point. If you don't like the color and assertive flavor of whole wheat, try white whole-wheat instead. It's made from different wheat, with a milder flavor. You might also experiment with adding nonwheat flours such as rye, buckwheat or oat flour, which add flavor and nutrition as well as fiber. Oat flour is an especially apt and traditional choice. At a minimum, you can add inulin fiber -- available as a supplement -- to your existing white flour to make the scones slightly more virtuous.

Finding a Fat

The most traditional fats for scones and biscuits are butter and lard, both notable for their high levels of saturated fats. For decades margarine and vegetable-oil shortening were thought to be healthier alternatives, but the hydrogenation process used to make them created trans fats, now thought to be even unhealthier than saturated animal fats. Many manufacturers now offer nonhydrogenated or trans-fat-free margarine and shortening, which are good choices for biscuits and scones. Coconut oil, a saturated oil that your body processes as if it were unsaturated, is also a good choice, though it can leave your biscuits with a hint of coconut flavor.

Lightening the Dairy Load

Rich traditional scones often called for heavy cream or half-and-half as their liquid, raising the scones' fat and cholesterol content substantially. Switching to low-fat milk or cultured buttermilk eliminates almost all of the cholesterol and fat, and cuts the calories by approximately two-thirds. Nondairy milks are similarly lean and can bring additional nutrients that vary depending which product you use.

Adding Healthy Extras

After you've tweaked the basic ingredients in your scones or biscuits to make them more healthful, you can up your game by adding in a few extras. Fresh berries or chopped pieces of dried fruit add fiber and nutrients, and many berries are packed with antioxidants as well. Nuts and seeds provide high-quality protein, healthy oils and a rich flavor, while ground flaxseed adds a similar flavor along with heart-healthy omega-3s. Almost anything you like can be considered as an add-in.

About the Author

Fred Decker is a trained chef and certified food-safety trainer. Decker wrote for the Saint John, New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, and has been published in Canada's Hospitality and Foodservice magazine. He's held positions selling computers, insurance and mutual funds, and was educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.